Lewis Hamilton controversially defied team orders to deny his Mercedes team-mate and world championship rival Nico Rosberg a probable victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was told three times to give way to Rosberg, who was on a different strategy, but decided to hold his ground. His refusal to follow the instruction from the Mercedes pit wall meant he finished third and Rosberg fourth, narrowing the German’s lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship to 11 points.

But Hamilton was angry the order was issued, saying: ‘I was in the same race as him. If I’d let him past he would have had the opportunity to pull away.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch Rosberg talk about controversial Hungarian Grand Prix result

‘But I am glad I made the right decision. I was racing for myself not for him.

‘I
don’t think it changes the situation going forward. I’m sure we’ll go
through it and explain and discuss and try to understand it. At the time
I was trying to weigh it up because I was in third. Maybe if I’m eighth
and he’s fighting for first then maybe, but that wasn’t the case. I’m
sure the team did it for the right reasons.

‘If I had let him past, he would have caught me with a few laps to go, for sure.’

Rosberg declined to be drawn into the controversy, saying he would speak with the team before commenting.

Asked
if Hamilton should have complied, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said:
‘That’s a tricky one. We need to analyse that properly and not give a
knee-jerk reaction now. They are fighting for the world championship.
It’s not an easy call.’

Despite
not being allowed through, the German came close to overhauling
Hamilton in the final few laps of the race. But Hamilton fought back
brilliantly from the back after misfortunes in qualifying for the second
successive weekend.

He
did it from the pit lane after his car caught fire on Saturday. Last
week in the German Grand Prix he went from 20th to third after a break
failure caused him to crash in qualifying.